Rental Housing Board to Rank Priorities for New Fiscal Year

The Pasadena Rental Housing Board is scheduled to rank its policy priorities for Fiscal Year 2026/2027 on Thursday, choosing among seven topics that will shape which rental rules move forward over the coming year.

Board members will be asked to receive a report from Helen Morales, Executive Director of the Rent Stabilization Department, review existing priorities, rank newly identified ones and provide direction to staff.

Egregious habitability violations led the survey with seven first-priority responses. Rental registry regulations and online portal improvements drew seven second-priority responses. Standing committees under Chapter 3 drew five fourth-priority responses.

Board members also sorted the topics using the Eisenhower Matrix, which separates the urgent from the important. Egregious habitability violations drew eight rankings as “urgent and important,” more than any other topic.

The other four topics are Vega adjustment examples in Chapter 7, exempting appeal records from publication requirements, board member compensation, and limiting public comment to 1.5 minutes when there are many speakers on an item, more closely matching City Council procedures.

Board members put forward nine additional topics of their own, among them a habitability plan, junk fees, a right to counsel and indoor heat.

Under Article XVIII of the City Charter, the Board holds the power to establish rules and regulations for the administration and enforcement of the article. This year’s priorities involve fewer Charter mandates, according to the staff report, because the Board, with help from the Rent Stabilization Department, has accomplished nearly all of the tasks the Charter set out.

The report also carries two written comments from board members. One says the most important goals were not part of the prioritization exercise at the start of the survey. The other calls for a solution to what it calls more than three years of abuse of the comment period by a specific member of the public.

The Pasadena Rental Housing Board is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Aug. 20, in the Council Chamber at Pasadena City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Ave., Room S249, in Pasadena. For more information call (626) 744-4124 or visit https://www.cityofpasadena.net/commissions/agendas/.